Management buy-outs: strategies for success

Management buy-outs have become an established feature of business life. Changes in the environment have forced many large organizations to take a measured examination of their product portfolio and to consider where it is best to concentrate scarce resources. Areas and activities which are thought to be peripheral to the core business of the company are ripe for divestment. Potential buy-out managers need a strategy, both for steering the business through the acquisition process and for its subsequent management and direction. This paper examines some of the strategies that have been deployed using case examples from original research and comments on their effectiveness or otherwise. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.